We live in SK. We write out an Educational Plan every year stating our philosophy, goals for the year and resources. In June, we can either send in a portfolio or a written evaluation of our year. The school board has been asking that we don't send in porfolios and that our evaluation not be more than one page as they don't have time to read it. :confused: We do receive funding-- $300 per child who is registered. I am not sure how I feel about the funding yet. Last year was the first year we received it. It definitely helps but I would be quite willing to give up the funding in lieu of other special services like speech therapy, reading assessments, etc. things that we are not allowed to have because it goes against "policy." Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I think that the purpose for doing history in the early elementary years is to expose the child to the people and stories of that era. It isn't for mastery of names of wars and dates. THis is the beauty of the 4 yr. history cycle, imo. We are just about finished our 1st cycle of history. For some reason, my dd remembers Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Queen Isabella, Catherine the Great, these are just to name a few. This delights me. The next time we go through history, we will go a bit deeper so, hopefully, she will remember more of the events of the various times. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

For 3rd & 1st grade Hits: Vocabulit ETC A Reason for Handwriting--Cursive D'Aulaire's Greek Myths MP's Christian Studies FLL3 & 1 OPGTR Misses: HWOT--cursive KISS grammar Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

My 3rd grader does about 4 hours of school daily. My 1st grader does about 1.5 hrs daily. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

WE have done two years of preschool with all of our children for varying reasons. It was harder with my oldest to transition to homeschool. She had her heart set on going to K with her friends. It didn't help any that the pre-school teacher took my dd's class on a tour of the Kindergarten. She saw the puppet theater and she was all ready to go. I had problems for the first couple of months with her. But I empasized when we did something fun or went on a field trip that she would not be able to do all of these things if she went to school. The kicker was when I woke her up at 7:00 a.m to watch the school bus go down the road. I told her that if she went to school she would have to get up really early and go to school in the dark. I never had problems with my ds and I don't expect any with my youngest either. Having their sister already doing school at home so they know what to expect helps. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

While I have a strong desire to homeschool through highschool, I am still taking it one year at a time. My dh is not as passionate about hsing as I am. He started talking about putting the kids in school last summer. So I am very much aware that our situation is very much a year by year thing. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I was a sugar addict. I had it bad. When I decided to go without sugar, I was still eating fruit. Nothing happened. I still felt uchy. So then I stopped eating fruit, except berrries. I lost 12 pounds. I am hoping that after awhile, I might be able to go back to minimal eating of fruit cause I am having a hard time finding things to eat. I am eating veggies and protein with minimal carbs. Julia mom to 3 (8,7,5)

We recently have started FLL 3 after changing from R&S grammar. I much prefer FLL to R&S. I have always found R&S dry and boring but I couldn't find anything that was as thorough. I am pretty sure that I have found it. Now we only started last week, but my dd is enjoying FLL very much. There is much more variety to FLL. It has more life and it is very rigourous, imo. The one thing, though, that I have problems with is the workbook. I don't think you have to get the workbook in order to do the program. All of the exercises are written out in the teacher's manual so I don't know why you couldn't use the whiteboard for the exercises. If you like workbooks, then you might not have a problem with it. This is just a personal preference. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

WE just started SOTW 4 with my 8 yr. old. We are loving it. I would not call it boring. The Activity Guide is different than other years, but it is geared to Gr. 4 and up so it makes sense that it would be different. We are only on Chp. 6 but we are having a great time getting to know David Livingstone and Abraham Lincoln. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I first read WTM before my oldest started K. The WTM gave me a blueprint of what to do, when to do it and how to do it at the beginning of our journey when I was so afraid of messing my kid up. Over the years, I have gained confidence in my teaching ability that I don't rely on WTM quite as much anymore. I flew off in my own direction, so to speak. But I am very grateful to WTM for giving me a great foundation. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I was just going to suggest The Tale of Desperaux but Stephanie beat me to it. So I will second her suggestion. We love this book! I love her writing style. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

Well, I'll jump on the RS bandwagon as well. I am getting ready to start it with my third child. We love it here. It has helped us to overcome our math phobias (both for my dd and myself.) I love how it teaches math with hands on activities and games. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I had trouble with my dd in doing B. It took us forever to get through it (20 months) but I started her in B when she 5 1/2. So when it was time to go through this again with ds (who turned 7 in Jan and is in Gr. 1) I went very slowly through it. We started B last April and we are just about finished B now. My dd got hung up on Lesson 70. We stayed there the longest time. I didn't want my ds to get hit that wall so we took our time in B. He has had no problem. He is having a bit of difficulty doing 2 digit addition but I think that will come with maturity so I am letting him just do it on the abacus. So if you go slowly with your ds in the areas that need it, you should be okay. Also, your dd is not 'behind.' Some of the math that she is doing in C is way beyond 2nd gade level. So in areas in math she is way ahead. Don't worry about the 'behind' thing. If it makes you feel better, my dd, who is in Grade 3 just started Level D in Jan. so she is 'behind' too. But I would rather her be behind and understand math than to be on track and not have a clue about what she is doing. Btw, Level D is proving to be a bit faster going than B and C, so you will proably make up ground when you get to this level. We are loving D. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

We loved this movie. I'm not sure how accurate it is but we liked it all the same. I was so surprised that James Macavoy was in this as well. I have heard his name around lots lately but didin't really know who he was. When I watched the movie, he didn't look familiar but there was something familiar about his voice. Then it came to me. He is Mr. Tumnus from the Chronicles of Narnia. This was an added bonus to the movie. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I have enough bookshelves now that I put all of my curriculum and books (current and from years past) on them. I like having everything at my fingertips so that I don't have to search for things when the time comes. Before the bookshelves, I used Rubbermaid containers to store the curriculum that I wasn't using for that year. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I will be doing K with my last one in the fall. I plan on doing reading/math separate. I also want to do more nature study activities with her as well. I am sure she will want to sit in on science with her siblings as we are doing physics and there will be experiments. She will be doing science as a tag-along. I won't expect her to do anything formal with this. I also read to her separately as I don't want her to miss out on the great chapter books that her brother and sister were exposed to at that age. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

We've been doing Chemistry this year and it has been a hit and miss thing. But I think for the early years you just want exposure to these topics, so I would say move on. I just got our Physics program yesterday. It's Christian Kids Explore Physics. Obviously it is a Christian curriculum. I don't know whether that matters to you or not. I really liked it. There was alot of good info in it and, from what I have been able to see, the experiments were on our level--fun but not too intricate. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

My choices may be a little too young for your kids. We absolutely love The Tale of Desperaux by Kate (I can't remember her last name, but she wrote Because of Winn Dixie) and The Secret World of Og by Pierre Berton. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I did the happy dance when they announced that Danny was going home. That boy has serious attitude. Even my 8 yr. old picked up on this when he said that he wanted everyone to be his fans. :rolleyes: Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

We used the printing books and really liked them. But we started on the cursive book and have recently changed curriculums. I didn't like the style of the cursive. The 'm's, 'n's and 'r's looked funny to me. We are now using A Reason for Handwriting. I am happy with the change. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I live in Canada. I have ordered from other Canadian homeschool suppliers and have had nothing but trouble from all of them. So I now only order from RR. I have ordered in the spring and it usually takes about 2 to 3 weeks to get my order. When I order from a Can. company it takes about 6 wks. I just put in an order last month and I received it a week later. In the five years that I have done business with them, I have only had one item back ordered. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I go on to the next--especially if it is math. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

Alana, I just took a look at your site. It is awesome! Thank you for sharing that. We will be doing Can. History in May, so I have bookmarked your site for help when we get there. Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I have it mostly planned out. 4th grader: Math: RS Math Level E L/A: copywork, dictation, FLL 4, Writing With Ease History: Doing bible history with a myriad of resources Science: Christian Kids Explore Physics Classical Studies: reading The Wonder Book & Tanglewood Tales 2nd grader: Math: RS Math Level C L/A: copywork, FLL2, will probably still be doing phonice with OPGTR & ETC Science: reading Burgess Bird Book, studying birds, more of a nature study emphasis Classical Studies: The Baldwin Book--I can't remember the title K'er: Math: I am going to do more of a living math approach with this one L/A: I'm not sure if we will start phonics now or not, depends on her. IF so we will be using OPGTR and ETC. Other: doing interest led units from Homeschool Share and FIAR Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)

I organize by subject. Each shelf is a subject. You can easily see which subject I like more. The history shelf is groaning from the weight of all of those books. :) Julia mom of 3 (8,7,5)